1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device. More specifically, it is an image processing device being capable of printing a file attached to an electronic message when it cannot be received due to the capacity limit of the mail server by acquiring it from the transmission source or from another transmission destination.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of various multi-function peripheral (“MFP”) devices having multiple functions such as scanning, printing and copying has become popular in recent years. Some of these MFP devices are capable of not only transmitting image data captured by scanning original document images and attaching the image data to electronic mail (“e-mail”) messages, but also capable of developing received image data files attached to e-mail messages into bitmap data and printing said data, so that e-mail printing systems for transmitting such printing data attached to e-mail messages to such MFP devices to be printed have come to be used.
In some cases, however, such an e-mail printing system can create a situation where an MFP at the delivery destination cannot print the attachment file as it is prevented from being transmitted due to the capacity limitation of the relaying mail server. In order to solve the problem, there have been several proposals: a method of breaking down an e-mail message into a plurality of e-mail messages at the transmission source device, if the volume of said message exceeds said capacity limitation and restoring the original message from the divided messages at the transmission destination device (US 2001/0013056 A1); and a method of storing an attachment file at a specified location of the transmission source device, if it cannot be transmitted due to a size limitation, and later accessing and downloading it from the stored location at the transmission destination device (US 2002/0140986 A1). However, there is a problem with the first method in that the process becomes too complicated as it is necessary for the transmission source device to divide the file in advance into smaller divisions according to a preset upper limit, which suits the smallest capacity limit among the mail servers the message has to deal with in its transmission. Also, there is a problem with the latter method in that it may be impossible for the transmission destination device to access the transmission source device due to the network environment of the transmission source device (firewall, etc.) if the transmission destination device cannot receive an e-mail message due to its size and hence it has to access the transmission source device.